February 16, 2011 – 7:30 am
As the heavy snowpack begins to disappear with some of the first warm days we’ve had since late December, it’s time to allow your imagination to dream of green grass, fragrant flowers and a more beautiful and functional landscape. If part or all of the landscape around your home is uninspired, overgrown or poorly arranged, begin now to envision how you’d really like your yard to look and feel.
Think about what you really want before you discourage yourself with budget concerns. When creating a plan don’t forget to incorporate an inviting outdoor living space , a place to recharge your batteries, and a place for the activities you and your family really enjoy.
Next figure out what actually installing these landscape features will cost you. If the costs are too high, decide how to implement the changes over a period of several years, to match your cash flows. If the costs are still too high, decide how you can change some expensive elements of the project to lower priced choices. By following this sequence, you are likely to still get the majority of the look and feel you envision.
If you feel you aren’t able to design your own landscape, our landscape designer would be able to help you with advice during a site visit consultation or even create a landscape plan for your property.
I am also sharing this post on my blog spot with the Northfield News.
January 25, 2011 – 12:32 pm
The unrelenting winter of 2010-2011 has many of us suffering from cabin fever. Here are a few ideas for garden lovers to break out of the winter doldrums by doing something:
- Protect a tree. Younger trees may be vulnerable to bark damage from mice, rabbits, deer and sunscald. Unusually deep snow means rabbits and mice can sit on top of snowbanks and chew bark above the tops of already installed tree wraps. Simply add another white plastic tree wrap above the snow line that overlaps with protection you put on last fall down to the ground level. These wraps also protect against sunscald from sunlight bouncing off the snow. We do have tree protectors for sale here at the nursery.
- Thumb through a seed catalog. It helps get the imagination going in a positive direction. Order something you’ve never tried before. It will give you something which you can look forward to in anticipation.
- Go for walks on days with low winds, and take notice of which landscape elements you see on other properties that have a nice appearance in winter. Make a few notes for future additions/revisions to your landscape.
- Get on an airplane headed for any direction but north!
January 10, 2011 – 5:39 pm
Wondering what caused small tunnels in some of the snow banks on your property? Have you been frustrated about your lawn being torn up when the snow banks melt in the spring? Are mice getting altogether too friendly and paying you visits INSIDE your home?
In all likelihood all three of these events have the same cause, probably meadow voles/mice. Heavy snow cover is a paradise for mice. They can freely tunnel around at ground level, and feed on the roots and bark of grass, forbes, perennials, shrubs and tree seedlings. Under all that snow cover they are very safe from predatory hawks, owls, fox and the like. There is little reason for them to go anywhere else, so if they like the plant materials they encounter on your property, they will probably continue to do damage all winter.
While they are cute and fuzzy, they are very destructive. Trapping them is a hit or miss approach to solving your mouse/vole problem. The most effective way of eliminating the problem is placement of poison bait. It is essential to be sure that the mouse/rat poison can’t be eaten by pets and wild animals. A simple and safe way to do this is by purchasing a heavy duty plastic bait station. It opens side so you can load chunk type bait on spindles from which the bait can’t be removed once the cover is screwed shut by a handy set screw. The rodents smell the bait inside, crawl through a winding labyrinth and easily find the bait. One feeding is all it usually takes to poison the rodent. Where populations of mice and voles are high, bait stations are a very effective way to safely control rodents. They work for you 24 hours a day, and probly only need to be checked and re-baited every month or two.
Most hardware stores and building centers sell the bait stations and chunk style bait. Make sure the bait station has a secure way of being locked after placing the bait in the station to protect Fido and Garfield. Your landscape plants and lawn will thank you.
November 11, 2010 – 1:20 pm
Hydrangea Tree Blossoms
We have all enjoyed the beauty of the hydrangea trees for the last several months and now the blossoms have faded and turned brown. Now is the time to prune off the flower clusters. These spent flowers catch the snow (and ice) from winter storms and the weight of this snow and ice can cause the branches to snap off. We learned this lesson the hard way. A few years ago, we hadn’t gotten to pruning the hydrangea tree yet and we had a late fall snow. The flowers caught the heavy snow and the branches started to bend causing one of the main branches up in the tree to split off. It took a couple of years of new growth to fill in the gap created by this branch snapping off. I pruned our Tardiva tree hydrangea this morning with our garden loppers and it took just about ten minutes start to finish.
October 17, 2010 – 12:10 pm
October and November are traditionally the months when people stock up on firewood. For your safety, and to enjoy beautiful fires that burn nicely instead of smoldering and smoking, be sure to buy firewood that has been well dried. An awful lot of firewood that is sold has been drying for only the summer, or less.
Wood that has been dried in an open, sunny, windy place for two full summer seasons or longer, burns far better, and produces far less creosote deposits which is a big safety concern. It is also important that during the drying process, wood be stacked neatly so air can move on all sides of the wood. Firewood that has been simply thrown in one huge pile will dry some, but does so far more slowly than in neatly stacked rows. Be sure to ask how long it has been drying when purchasing firewood.
The amount of firewood pictured here is a “fireplace cord”. It is a stack of wood that is 4 feet high by 8 feet long and approximately 15″-18″ wide. (This amount of firewood measures about 1/3 of the standard logger’s cord). Our supply of firewood has been drying for three summers, and consists of hardwoods – elm, maple, hickory, oak, basswood and others. The price for this delivered in Northfield is $175. Please give us a call for delivery costs to other areas. We also have for sale here at the nursery firewood bundles for that backyard campfire this fall. These bundles are also from this same supply of firewood.
October 14, 2010 – 10:33 am
Trees that have been recently planted (sometime within the last fives years or so) – are much safer in the late fall – winter and early spring with a white tree wrap protecting the bark from sun damage, rodents, rabbits and deer. All young trees should be wrapped going into winter, however, it is very important for maples, crabapples and ALL fruit trees to be wrapped. These trees are more tender, and are more attractive to the rodents and rabbits. We have three different kinds of tree wraps available that are all re-useable for several years and a weed whipping guard for protecting the bark on trees.
We highly recommend that you use only white materials to wrap your trees for winter protection because white changes temperature far less during the cycle from night to day than darker colored materials. Temperature fluctuations if they are extreme can encourage sap to rise into the bark of the tree prematurely and when a cold snap comes this extra moisture in the bark can sometimes freeze and destroy fairly significant amounts of bark. I’ve often seen people use black drain tile for wrapping trees and while it does prevent bucks from rubbing their antlers and rodents from chewing, it may actually aggravate problems with sunscald damage or frost cracking.
When installing the white wraps it is important to try to fit the bottom of the wrap as tightly to the ground as possible. This makes it tougher for small animals like mice to do any major damage. We recommend wrapping trees to a height of 4′ or 5′ if possible. White wraps only cost a few dollars each and can save an awful lot of disappointment. Last spring we had a very sad and unending procession of customers coming in and telling us how their tree(s) got severely damaged because they were lacking a good wrap. Wraps should be removed in the spring and stored again until fall. It is important for the tree to be able to get good air circulation during the growing season and it also prevents insects from causing damage underneath the wraps during the summer.
October 14, 2010 – 10:09 am
After record rainfall and flooding in late September that provided plenty of moisture for area trees to be fully active just prior to going dormant, fall colors have been very intense on the varieties that traditionally put on an autumn show. The exceptionally dry and warmer than normal weather since the historic flood has also shortened the length of time individual trees showed their peak colors.
It looks like a few tree varieties that turn color in the last half of October may not achieve peak color due to the very rapid dry down of the leaves. The same rapid dry down has farmers harvesting soybeans and corn at unuusally low moisture levels which should save costs on grain drying. I’ve even heard that the corn is so dry, that a little of the bumper crop of 2010 is ending up on the ground as kernels fall of the cobs before they even get to the part of the combine where screens capture the grain as it is shelled off the cobs.
Grain prices are at fairly high levels at the moment, which means our area farmers may have good economic fortunes in the midst of a national economic recovery that has been modest at best. Our local farmers take great risks to help our nation have some of the worlds cheapest food prices and I am ever greatful for their efforts each time I go to the grocery store. If they are able to bring in a good crop at a good price, we should all benefit from the ripple effect of these extra dollars in our local economy.
Planting conditions look as if they will remain favorable for planting landscape projects throughout the month of Octber, and as usually, many bargains can be found this time of year. Be sure to enjoy these fabulous days of Indian Summer as you complete your late garden projects and prepare for fall maintenance and cleanup activities.
September 23, 2010 – 7:00 am
People often wonder if it is too late to plant once fall has arrived. For most plant varieties, fall is an excellent time to add to your landscape. Cool conditions make watering easier, and plants are ready to go the following spring when the growing season starts.
Root prune well, water just enough, but not too much, and mulch a wide area around the root ball with a 2″ thick layer of bark or wood chips, and your new plantings should grow like gangbusters next spring.
On newly planted perennials – don’t mulch until after there is about 2″ of frost in the ground. You want to keep the cold in, not try to keep it out. Once we have had a couple of hard frosts where there’s frost in the ground – tuck your perennials in with a few inches of mulch, and then in the spring – just pull it back and they’ll be ready to start to grow!
August 29, 2010 – 8:22 am
Today I went out to do a “little” pruning in the hydrangea shrub section. With a mission in mind!
Each year, I take a few cuttings of flowers from the hydrangeas for drying and then I keep them in vases for displays inside the house. The ones that I currently have at home have been dried for two years now. They are getting a little brittle so I decided it was time for another round of “fresh” hydrangeas for the living room!
My bouquet here features five different varieties – Limelight, Little Lime™ and Invincebelle Spirit® – each of which is a Proven Winner variety and then Endless Summer and Twist ‘n Shout, both of which are part of the Endless Summer series of Hydrangeas. I will take these home, place in a cool location that is dark, hang them upside down for 2 to 3 weeks and that is it! The color will fade some but will still be quite colorful!
I have had several calls the last couple of days with concerns like “my hydrangea is drooping” or the leaves aren’t looking very good and are turning brown”. These are concerns on newly planted hydrangeas. These plants are heavy water users. Here in the nursery, we are watering our container ones at least twice a day, and sometimes on the hot days – they’re getting watered three times a day. Give your hydrangeas plenty of water – perhaps even twice a day. They definitely show you that they are thirsty – they will wilt before your eyes!
Be careful not to leave a hose trickle water your plants. You have no way of knowing if they are getting one gallon of water or twenty gallons. Water in a way that you know how much water you are giving any plant. With newly planted plants – all of the moisture that plant has is in the root ball. Whether it was a small one gallon perennial, or a 15 gallon tree – once the moisture has been used up in that root ball, it is lacking moisture and is definitely under stress. You need to be sure you get enough water on the plant to soak down into the entire root system. A quarter inch of rain will only go down perhaps an inch or so into the soil surface. If your plant has mulch on it, it is likely that none of the rain water from that 1/4 inch rain will even get to any of the roots, let alone all the way to the bottom of the root ball.
For more specifics on watering, please check out our instructions page and see our watering instructions.
Heidi Brosseau, our retail manager will be putting on a fall seminar. We’ve had a few different questions from customers and we decided to ask you what topic Heidi should discuss at her seminar. The topics to pick from are:
Gardening for Winter Interest
The Butterfly Lovers Gardening Seminar
Who’s Doin’ the Blooming? (fall bloomers)
Let us know what topic you’d like to see discussed at our fall seminar in September!
It’s almost blueberry picking time!
For anyone that remembers the fall of 2009 – we had one of the wettest Octobers – if not the wettest on record, followed by a beautiful November. We have always had good luck with our late fall plantings and decided it was time to get blueberries into our garden. These were planted the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, 2009. I watered them in and applied a 3 inch layer of mulch around them and this spring they started growing as soon as they woke up in early April! The blueberries are abundant!
The lessons that we have learned over the years is that don’t be afraid to try things. Pay attention to what you read – but never be afraid to try something “outside the box”. Most things you read say not to plant berries after September – but I hadn’t gotten it done earlier so I did it quite late. The only “extra” work I had to do was to mulch them. The results speak for themselves!
We carry a nice assortment of blueberries, raspberries, grapes, kiwi, and rhubarb in our small fruit section.
One of the most frequently asked questions we have is “How do I keep my annuals looking good all summer?” Here are a few tips to help ensure good success with your annuals!
Water: Once they are established, heavier, infrequent waterings will help your plants develop deeper root systems. Lighter, more frequent waterings result in shallow rooted plants that will stress much more in the heat of the summer. Keep in mind that this advice is for once they are established. Newly planted annuals need to be kept watered so they don’t dry out while trying to establish.
Fertilize: Annuals need to be fertilized regularly which results in profuse flowering! Think of annuals as heavy feeders. Liquid or powdered fertilizers added to watering water or the time release granules are the easiest ways to feed your annuals. Organic fertilizers can also be used. Since organic fertilizers have lower amounts of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus you should be aware of the amounts to use, etc. Multiple organic products may be needed to get the overall results. Hanging baskets should be fertilized once a week to keep them flowering throughout the season.
Weeding: Keep your annual bed free from weeds. This is probably the most disliked task for any gardener. Weeds compete for the water and nutrients that your plant also wants. You can pull them, use mulch, lay down newspaper or use a granular herbicide to help accomplish a weed free garden.
Deadheading: (removal of spent flowers). Many annuals (and perennials) need to be deadheaded or pinched back to allow the plant to continue to produce new flower buds and keep blooming. On some annuals you simply just pick off the flowers that are no longer looking good, and on some you need to pinch them off – simply use your finger nail to “cut” it off and for some plants that have a heavier stalk you may need to use a garden pruner to accomplish this task.
By following the above – you will be rewarded in a a colorful, blooming garden for the summer season. Enjoy!
